


The trouble of owning a dragon

by OutOfThisTown



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Adventure, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, Possessive Natsu Dragneel, Protective Natsu Dragneel, Romance, dragon!Natsu
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24009439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutOfThisTown/pseuds/OutOfThisTown
Summary: Lucy ends up becoming the owner of a small, troublesome dragon. However, owning a dragon is not a simple matter -especially when the dragon turns out to be not a dragon.
Relationships: Natsu Dragneel/Lucy Heartfilia
Comments: 36
Kudos: 267





	1. Chapter 1

“I’m not paying that much. You and I both know that the price is too high.” Lucy glared at the shopkeeper who was in the process of robbing her of her hard earned money. Like hell was she falling for a scam like this.

“And you and I both know that this key is one of a kind. This is the only place you can get it from, so I have every right to name whatever price I please.” The man grinned, confident with the fact that he had the upper hand.

Longingly, Lucy eyed the the golden key of Aries. She really wanted it, _needed it,_ but it meant handing over all her jewels and then some. No paying the rent, let alone eating. 

Time for a chance in tactics.

“C’mon, isn’t there any chance for a small discount?” Using her sweetest voice, she leaned over the counter and fluttered her lashes. Was she being obvious? Yes. Had it worked before? Every damn time.

The shopkeeper’s grin widened, aware of what she was doing and not minding one bit. “Well, you’d have to earn it.”

Lucy cringed on the inside, but she had done this enough times to know how to avoid any creepy requests. “You know, I belong to a pretty big guild... I’d be happy to tell my friends about your shop. They’d be delighted to drop by and see your selection of...uh... enchanted bath soaps.” Lucy made sure to pull attention to her hand where the Fairy Tail -mark was. Everyone knew that Mirajane and Erza belonged to Fairy Tail, and every shopkeeper would fight for the chance to have those two supporting their business.

“That is tempting.” He eyed the mark with interest. “Fine. I can give you 10% off.”

Only 10%? That wouldn’t do, but leaving the key behind was not an option, either. There were too many bad celestial wizards around and after what Loki had told her about Aries, Lucy was determined to get the key and finally give the spirit a good home.

“That is so kind of you.” Lucy gave the man her best smile, hiding her annoyance. “Is there anything else that might get you to drop the prize just a little bit more?”

There was a long pause which had Lucy worried she was annoying him. That was never a good thing when you wanted to make a good deal.

“Actually,” he stared slowly, “if you could take something off my hands, I would be happy to give the key at half the prize. Stay right there, I’ll be right back.” 

Lucy narrowed her eyes at his back as the man disappeared to the backroom of the shop. That had better not been an euphemism.

When he emerged again, Lucy was relieved to see that he was still wearing pants. And instead of perving on her, he was carrying something in his hands. Something that was red and moving.

Was that a...dragon?

Lucy’s suspicion was confirmed when the shopkeeper tried to set the kitten sized creature down, only to be bit.

With a curse, the man shook his hand violently in order to dislodge the being attached to it, the dragon dropping to the counter with a thud. It turned and hissed angrily at the cause of it’s fall, the spikes along the spine rising up and a long tail swatting from side to side in agitation.

“As you can see, this little devil has been giving me hell and I want to get rid of it, trouble is that no one’s agreed to buy it from me. I’d prefer not to kill, but I’m at my wits end. I need it out of my shop. If you can take it, the key goes for half the prize.” The man looked and sounded very desperate.

Lucy eyed the still hissing dragon. Dragons were rare in nature and even more so as pets, but those who could afford it got them as very efficient guard dogs and to show off their wealth. Problem was, once a dragon deemed something as their’s, they became very possessive and unless the dragon liked and trusted you, they wouldn’t allow anyone near their hoard. Which meant many rich men couldn’t approach their treasures or houses without an angry dragon trying to kill them. Dragon was not a smart investment in Lucy’s opinion.

Before she could ask, the man went on. “It’s gotten out of hand. I thought it would make for a good protection for the shop, but it’s gotten protective of some of the stuff I sell and attacks my customers. And not only that, it eats more than I do! I can’t afford this!”

“You’re not doing a good job of convincing me to take it.” Lucy raised an eyebrow. A dragon sounded more trouble than it was worth. She already had her spirits to protect her if needed and they didn’t require her to pay for their food. 

“Too bad,” the man sniffed. “The terms of the sale have changed. I won’t sell the key unless you take the dragon.”

Lucy gaped at him, outraged. “You can’t do that!”

“And why not? My shop, my rules. I want to get rid of this thing before it eats me out of a home.”

“I can’t just take it. The dragon has to choose to leave with me, and by the sounds of it, it has decided that this is it’s nest and hoard.” Lucy could already feel a headache starting. Could she just grab the key and run? Or would the dragon come after her? The last thing she wanted was to get mauled by an angry baby dragon.

“Try it. See if he likes you.” By the sounds of it, the current owner of the dragon didn’t think it would. Which would mean that this might end with some missing fingers on her part.

Lucy took a deep breath. She didn’t want the dragon, but she had made a promise to Loki to get the key and she wouldn’t go back on her word. The lion spirit had better appreciate the sacrifice she was about to make. “Fine.”

Carefully, Lucy extended her hand towards the small creature who was still staring hatefully at it’s owner. The dragon was startled by her hand and it jumped back with a hiss. When all she did was let her hand rest on the counter, palm up, the dragon approached cautiously. 

Slowly it set it’s claws against her fingers, leaning on her hand. Sniffing the air, the small thing crawled on to her hand. It was easy to tell that the dragon was curious despite feeling hesitant and distrustful. When the dragon lifted it’s face, it’s black-eyed stare zeroed in on her hair. With a surprising speed, it climbed up her arm, over her shoulder and up her neck. Lucy could feel the goosebumps raising on her skin at the feel of little claws scraping against her flesh. It was all she could do not to jump and squeal at the sensation.

A startled yelp managed to escape her when the dragon clambered up her hair and to the top of her head where it moved in a small circle, reminding Lucy of a dog about to lay down. She tried to stay as still as possible, not wanting to dislodge the creature.

“Well, it looks like you have yourself a new nuisance,” the shopkeeper laughed loudly, but was startled to take a step back when the dragon screeched angrily at him.

“Stars, what did you do to get him to hate you so much? Or her. Do you know if it’s a girl or a boy?” Lucy inquired.

“I didn’t do a thing! It’s hated me from the begin, and I really tried winning it over. Would have been cool to own a dragon.” He gazed longingly at the dragon still on top of her head. “It’s a boy, name’s Natsu. I got him from a wizard who had already named him. Don’t let the size fool you though, according to the wizard, that thing’s already an adult.”

Having had enough of her head, the dragon- Natsu, scaled down her hair and circled around her neck a few times, before making a dive for the opening of her top. 

“Oh no you don’t, buddy.” Lucy reacted quickly enough that she managed to get a hold of his tail and pull him back, a little amused by his antics. “A boy indeed.”

As Natsu hung upside down from her grip, Lucy worried he might try to take a bite out of her nose, but the small dragon only let out a few fast clicking noises, before twisting itself to hold on to her wrist. As soon as Lucy let go the tail, he was scampering up her arm and wrapping himself around her neck, head resting against her collarbone and tail tickling the back of her neck.

“Well then, half the prize was it?” Lucy asked, still a little too shocked at this turn of events to think of anything else to say. 

At the seller’s nod, Lucy set the appropriate amount of jewels on the counter, but when the man was handing over the key that started this whole thing, their hands brushed together. Natsu did not like that. His claws bit into her chest as the dragon braced itself against her and let out a sound that was an odd mix between a growl and a hiss. His wings, that had so far remained folded, opened up to hide her face and to make the dragon seem bigger and more threatening.

Startled, Lucy took a few steps back, her new key clutched to her chest as Natsu continued to make angry sounds at his former keeper, who also looked a little scared of the small creature.

“Get that thing out of here before it tears off my face,” the man hissed. Lucy wasted no time in doing just that.

The worry she had started to feel when it became obvious that she’d have to take the dragon, only grew worse as she made her way through the city and the thing kept hissing at people who pumped into her. Which was something that happened constantly, given how busy the streets were. She was truly panicking that Natsu would take a bite out of some poor passerby and she’d get sued for the damages. Lucy was starting to really wish that she’d just paid the original, greatly over-prized, amount for her new key instead of haggling herself a dragon. 

“You have gotta calm down or else we might end up in trouble, okay?” she tried to coo at small creature. Natsu paid her no mind as he was busy snarling at a child who had stepped on her toes. Shaking her head, Lucy gave an apologetic smile to the child and ducked into a quiet alleyway to remove the dragon from where he was still situated around her neck.

Holding him firmly between her hands and at an arms length away from her face, Lucy gave Natsu a hard stare. “No more snarling at people, you got that?” From the looks of it, he wasn’t picking up what she was putting down. Oh no, he was busy swishing around his tail and tilting his head back to look around the alley. “Hey, Natsu!”

To her complete surprise, at the sound of his name, two dark green eyes instantly snapped towards her. He looked at her with curiosity, his little front claws crapping hold of her thumbs.

“All right,” she started slowly, making sure that Natsu was still paying attention. “Like I said, you can’t go scaring people. It will draw attention and the wrong person might get mad; we don’t want that.” Natsu did not seem bothered by her warning.

Lucy considered him for a moment, thinking on what to say to make him understand, while also feeling a little silly for talking to him like he could but meaning to her words. 

“I can’t keep you if you cause too much trouble,” she said slowly. For the second time in as many minutes, she was surprised that he reacted. 

Natsu tensed in her hold, his little claws digging in as if to hold her in place and prevent her from leaving as a distressed noise shook his tiny form. He looked genuinely upset by the idea, and Lucy’s heart twisted painfully in response. 

Gulping, she went on, hoping to not only soothe him, but also to get him to work with her. After all, he seemed intelligent enough. “I would like to try and make this work. I want to give you a good home like I do with my celestial spirits, but I can only do that if you follow the rules I give you.” He seemed to still be listening. A good sign.

“First rule: unless I tell you to, don’t hiss and snap at people, okay? I can’t take you with me if I have to avoid people in order to keep you well behaved.” Carefully, she moved Natsu so that he was sitting on her palm and she could use her other hand gently pet along his back.

“Like I said, I want to make this work. We could be a little team, you and I. You could help me with my missions if you want. I promise I will feed you, make sure you have a warm and dry place to sleep, and I’ll never mistreat you. You’d be part of my family. But that can only happen if you show that you can behave,” she stopped, little worried that she’d said too much and Natsu wasn’t following her train of thought anymore. But instead ignoring her, Natsu made a string of happy sounding clicking noises and stood up to his hind legs, leaning back against the hand that was petting him.

“I don’t speak dragon so that had better have been a ‘yes ma’am’,” she said dryly and smiled a little when he responded with more clicks.

“All right, let’s test your understanding.” Lucy lifted Natsu next to her shoulder, from where he scampered back to his earlier spot. Only this time, before settling down, he rubbed his head against the side of her neck like a content cat. She had to admit to herself that Natsu was adorable.

Lucy was tense when she stepped back to the busy street, constantly waiting for Natsu to launch an attack against some poor soul. Luckily though, he seemed to have understood her well enough and kept all loud hisses to himself. From time to time, she could still feel him making a mean- sounding low rumbling or digging his claws into her skin, as if to ready himself for an attack, whenever someone dared to come too close, but he held himself back. Slowly, Lucy started to relax and gain confidence in her ability to keep the dragon.

“You are doing so well,” she complimented and reached up to carefully pet his head. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, maybe the shopkeeper really was just a mean idiot who’d done something to earn the dragon’s anger. “We’ll just stop by the market to find us something to eat before we go to the hotel. Tomorrow we’ll take the train back to Magnolia and I’ll introduce you to your new home.”

Natsu proved to be a little more difficult to control around food. Lucy had to do her shopping with one hand, so that she could keep the other on Natsu and make sure he didn’t dive for the food stalls. Of course, there was also the trouble of walking around with a dragon; everyone wanted to have a closer look and ask questions about him. To flood of people talking at them was annoying Natsu, she could feel him growing tense and his little growling got louder. Lucy was getting anxious too, Natsu was doing his best to follow her request to behave, but this was not making it easy for him. She just wanted to hurry to the hotel where the dragon could hopefully relax.

They had almost made it when Lucy collided with someone. She had been so focused on the sign of her hotel that she hadn’t noticed the man coming from a side street. She stumbled back a few steps and would have fallen if the man had not grabbed her waist and pulled her against him. It would have all been very romantic, if not for the bloodthirsty lizard screeching at her shoulder.

Lucy pushed herself away from man and was just in time to snatch the tail speeding past her. She felt awful for how hard she yanked the dragon back, but the idea of Natsu going on a rampage put her into panic-mode.

She took of running towards the hotel, Natsu’s tail still in her grip, yelling a quick ‘thanks, sorry, bye!’ over her shoulder at the startled looking man. 

_He was handsome_ , Lucy noted in her mind. Once she got back to Magnolia, she’d have to complain to Levy how she might have missed her soulmate, or at the very least the perfect meet cute -moment, because of this ridiculous dragon situation she’d gotten herself in. _Really shouldn’t have haggled._

When she finally made it to her hotel room, Lucy couldn’t be quick enough in shutting the door. She let go of the dragon and sighed with relief. She leaned back against the door and watched as Natsu flew around the small room, inspecting everything. “You better not break anything.”

Lucy didn’t receive an answer -not that she’d been expecting one. Instead, Natsu attached himself to the side of the shopping bag still hanging from her hand, clearly wanting to be fed. 

She lifted the bag to eye -level and watched as Natsu tried to chew his way through the plastic. “Is this really what my life is going to be like?”

She got more clicks as a response. 

Lucy had been horrified to see the way the small dragon inhaled everything edible, and so instead of staying to watch, she had retreated to the bathroom in order to take a long, soothing bath. She could only hope that Natsu didn’t destroy the room while she wasn’t keeping her eyes on him.

A pleased sigh escaped her as she sunk into the warm water. This was exactly what she needed after the stress she had endured. This type of worrying would probably be constant from now on thanks to her new... pet? Calling Natsu a pet didn’t feel right. After all, she would never call one of her spirits a pet. They were her friends, her partners in battle. They had given her the family she had wanted as a child. Though, she wasn’t quite sure how the dragon would fit in. Natsu seemed a little too possessive to be a member of a working family unit.

Thinking about it raised her stress levels once again, so she did her best to clear her thoughts and get to a more relaxed state. She could worry about all that once she was back at home.

Lucy had nearly reached her inner peace when a noise made her eyes snap open.

Slowly, she turned her head towards the bathroom door from where the scratching could be heard. She stayed still until the annoying sound ceased. 

Just as she was getting ready to relax again, Natsu started scraping the door again. Only this time he also added in a high pitched whining.

“Natsu!” at her snap, he stopped again. “I’ll be out in a minute. Why don’t you try taking a nap or something?”

A heartbeat later the scratching and whining picked back up. Lucy grit her teeth and got up from the tub. She wrapped a towel around herself to stop the cool air from touching her skin, before making her way to the door and yanking it open, praying that Natsu hadn’t damaged it in a way she would have to pay for.

The little dragon slipped inside and rubbed against her legs affectionately, before he started to investigate the bathroom. Lucy sighed with defeat, but was pleased to note that the door was in one piece. 

“Alright, you can stay as long as you don’t bother me.” She gave Natsu a hard stare that he completely ignored in favor of scratching the bathmat.

Shaking her head, Lucy dropped her towel and stepped back in to the bathtub, much less relaxed than she had been earlier. She felt on edge, just waiting for Natsu to do something to cause her a headache. Stars, what if he set something on fire right now and she’d have to run to safety naked? With the way this day had gone, Lucy wouldn’t be surprised if she did end the day streaking across the hotel.

Soon enough, Natsu grew bored of the bathmat and flew over to the tub, landing on it’s edge, his claws clicking as they hit the porcelain. He leaned over the water, staring at the bubbles with fascination before reaching out to poke them.

Unfortunately for him, he overbalanced and fell in with a splash.

A moment later, Natsu re-emerged with a lot of trashing around. He made a very ungraceful show of swimming back to the edge of the tub where he hung on for dear life.

Lucy couldn’t stop the laughter spilling from her. He looked absolutely ridiculous with piles of bubbles stacked on and around his tiny body, and with a look of shock on his face.

Natsu snapped his head in her direction, and for a moment Lucy worried that she had just insulted him and he would grill her as a revenge. But instead of anger, Natsu tilted his head at the sound of her laugh. Was she imagining it, or did he look amused? 

He let out a string of those happy clicking sounds again, before pushing off the edge of the bathtub in order to splash his way towards her. He was adorable trying his best to swim by flailing his limps against the water, wings waiving in attempt to somehow help him forward. By the time he reached her, Lucy’s laughter was echoing around the bathroom.

Before Natsu could sink his claws into her bare skin, Lucy cupped her hands under him and lifted him out of the water. She could have sworn he grinned at her right before shaking himself off like a dog. She squealed and giggled as a spray of droplets ans soap landed on her.

“You are a troublemaker, aren’t you?” She grinned a him. Natsu seemed pleased with her reaction and let out more clicks.

The rest of the bath time was spend with Lucy watching as Natsu practiced swimming. 

She found it a little odd that swimming seemed to be a new experience for the dragon. The shopkeeper had said that Natsu was already an adult, so shouldn’t he already know how to swim? And he was so small too. Lucy didn’t know all that much about dragons, but the few she’d seen had been varying in size between an average dog and a big mansion (though the bigger ones had luckily been from a distance).

She’d have to do some research into dragons once she was back in Magnolia. 

Once the water grew cold, Lucy got out of the bath and wrapped a towel around herself, Natsu following after her. He was quick to shake himself dry before settling on the counter in front of the mirror to watch as she dried her hair. 

Lucy thought he was being oddly patient. For the little while she’d known him, Natsu seemed to always be moving and looking at everything around him, trying to find things to entertain himself with. But now he was perfectly content to just sit and stare as she ran a towel over her hair. He started clicking at her again when she moved to brush through the golden strands. Lucy found herself amused by his happy disposition.

When she was satisfied with the state of her hair and moved to leave the bathroom, Natsu flew to her shoulder and circled himself around her neck like he’d done earlier. And this time he was refusing to move, so Lucy had to tuck on her pajamas with a dragon decorating her neck. An experience she didn’t think many people shared.

Only when she slipped into bed did Natsu let go, and that was probably because he didn’t want to be squashed. He didn’t venture far though, curling into a little ball against the curve of her neck and shoulder. Lucy didn’t mind this position all that much, he was like a little ball of warmth next to her. And he also made a low little rumbling sound that she found to be shooting.

“Goodnight,” she whispered to the dragon. Not that he heard her, since he seemed to be asleep and snoring already. Odd little thing.

Lucy lay awake a while longer, mind whirling on everything that could go wrong tomorrow. After all, they would be spending a good few hours in a train full of strangers, and if there was anything that Lucy had learned today, it was that Natsu didn’t seem to get along with people.

If there was an alternative to taking the train, she would have done so in a heartbeat, but there wasn’t. Magnolia was almost two days walk away and half of that would be done by climbing mountains. She really wasn’t prepared for that, so all Lucy could do was hope that the train wouldn’t be too full.

She had a bad feeling about it.


	2. Chapter 2

Lucy would have stuffed the dragon into her bag if she didn’t think he would dig his way through it. But now that she was standing at the train station, she wondered if sacrificing her favorite bag would have been worth it. Natsu seemed beyond agitated and ready to take off at any second. 

He was sitting on her shoulder, tail wrapped tightly around her neck and claws digging hard into her shoulder. She had tried easing his grip on her a few times, but it only worked for a minute or so before he was back to clamping onto her. Lucy could tell he was nervous about something, she just didn’t know what. She had expected this to go like it had yesterday, with him hissing at every human that looked their way. But no, it wasn’t like that at all.

Natsu’s odd stillness and neediness to hang onto her had started that morning, when Lucy had tried telling him how to behave on the train. He’d started making distressed sounds and clawing at her luggage. She knew he was trying to tell her something, but the problem was, she didn’t speak dragon. 

And now he was just sitting in his place, not making a sound, staring at the train tracks with unblinking eyes. He hadn’t so much as looked at the man that had bumped into her on the way here!

Lucy was getting more worried the longer this went on. He hadn’t even finished his breakfast! Had she broken him somehow? What was she supposed to do with an ill dragon? She didn’t think that any vet in Magnolia was qualified to treat dragons. Ugh, this whole dragon business was a nightmare!

Petting the side of his head with her hand, she tried calming him as much as herself with the repetitive movement. Even though Natsu hadn’t hurt her in the small amount of time she’d had him, she was still a little distrustful of the dragon, half expecting to be bitten for touching him. He didn’t bite her though, he barely acknowledged her at first. She stroked her finger against his scaled cheek a few times before he lightly leaned himself against her hand. His gaze didn’t stray from the train tracks though.

“Natsu,” she cooed softly, trying to distract him from whatever it was that was causing him worry. Reluctantly, the dragon tilted his head to look at her. “What’s wrong?”

She wasn’t sure why she kept talking to him as if he could actually answer, but somehow it felt right. There was an odd spark in his eyes when she talked to him, something that told her he wasn’t just about his instincts; he was far smarter than that. Like he was capable processing and understanding in a way that wasn’t normal for an animal of any kind.

Natsu looked at her a with serious eyes before his head snapped towards the sound of the approaching train. He inched closer to her head and leaned against it.

Was she imagining it or was the dragon trembling slightly? 

The sound of the train whistle had Natsu standing on his hind legs and screeching in distress while his wings flapped in alarmed manner. Well, one of them was flapping, the other just rammed against her cheek repeatedly. 

Was he afraid of the train? How was that possible? Dragons didn’t travel with trains... Unless he’d been transported with it earlier and the experience had traumatized the poor creature. 

Lucy cursed herself for not asking more questions from the shopkeeper. Was he the one to traumatize Natsu, or was the wizard who sold him responsible?

“Hey, Natsu, it’s going to be okay. Trains aren’t that bad. Whatever has you so spooked about them is not going to be a problem, I promise.” Lucy tried to soothe him, though her words seemed to fall on deaf ears.

She wanted to hug him close, partly to try and calm him and partly to make sure he didn’t take off on his own. Nervous dragon loose on the crowded train platform was just asking for trouble. She couldn’t act on her wish to hold him though, since she had to keep a hold of her luggage. The best she could do at the moment was try and grab his tail again if he decided to make a run (fly?) for it.

Of course she could summon one of her spirits to lend a hand, but Lucy was a little worried about how Natsu would react to something like that, and this definitely wasn’t the place to find out. Once they were back in Magnolia however, the celestial mage planned on familiarizing Natsu with all her spirits. She had a feeling they would be needed to help her manage the dragon.

As the train rumbled to a stop at the station, Lucy kept one hand at the ready to catch him while also murmuring soft words of comfort, though she didn’t think it was helping much.

Lucy waited until most of the crowd had filtered out of the way before making her way into the train. Natsu was tense on her shoulder, his claws biting through her shirt and into her skin. Deciding that reprimanding him would be cruel considering his current state, Lucy tried her best to walk with quick and steady steps to their seats. Beyond glad that she had managed to book both of the seats in order to avoid any incidents, she pushed her luggage next to the wall and sat down. 

Prying Natsu off of her shoulder turned out to be surprisingly difficult. He was sitting rigidly and his claws were tangled in the material of her t-shirt. It took some tugging as well as ruining her shirt, but she had him sitting on her palms just in time for when the train to started moving. 

And just like that, Natsu was laying flat on her hands, the bright red color of his scales dulling before her eyes and turning a concerning shade of light pink. Even his unusually warm body seemed to cool in an instant.

“Natsu?” she whispered, poking him gently with her thumb. All she got was a little grumble. “...Are you motion sick?” She really couldn’t think of another reason for his sudden look of illness.

Tail wound tightly around his small body, Natsu tucked himself into a little ball and nuzzled her palm.

“Oh, you poor little thing.” 

She held him close to her chest with hand while using the other to fish out a few napkins from her handbag. Carefully so not to pounce him around too badly, she tugged the napkins under the sick dragon -just in case. “Would you like some water or food? I think eating something salty might help.”

If the sound he made was any indication, he didn’t. 

Lucy stroked softly along his back, murmuring what she hoped were comforting words and trying her best not to jostle him. The next few hours would be long for the tiny creature and she felt awful for unknowingly putting him through this. What a horrible way for him to spend the second day with his new carer.

_Hopefully he won’t hate me after this_ , she thought grimly.

When the ticker inspector stopped to chat with her, Lucy felt terrible for being relieved of the dragon’s current condition. But honestly, letting your dragon tear into a train employee was a sure way to get kicked off the train... Though Natsu would probably be happy about that.

Hours later, when they finally arrived to Magnolia, Lucy nudged Natsu to crawl around her neck, where he hung limp. While cursing at the way her hands were cramping after petting him for so long, she gathered her bags and rushed out of the train as fast as she could. 

She really hoped that some fresh air would be all that the dragon needed to feel better. And luckily, it really didn’t take long for Natsu to start lifting his head in order to look around. Lucy suspected that the heavenly scent from the bakery was a great motivator for his improved health.

“Don’t even think about it,” Lucy warned when she saw him eyeing a burger stand. “Food is going to have to wait until we get home.” She wasn’t going to temp faith after surviving the train ride without any incidents.

Natsu growled in displeasure and gazed longingly to where the food was located. But thankfully, he remained on her shoulder even he wasn’t happy to do so. Lucy reached up to scratch under his chin, hoping to placate him. “I’m glad that you are feeling better.”

He looked at her, still offended for having been denied food but he seemed to cheer up when she promised he would get to eat soon . He clicked happily at her before nuzzling her cheek. Stars, he was adorable.

As soon as she pushed open her apartment door, Natsu shot off her shoulder to explore. Lucy was slower to follow him to the living room, dropping her bags to the floor, she watched as Natsu flew around the room before landing on her dresser. He sniffed and poked at the nick-knacks there, and Lucy could only hope that he didn’t try to eat anything there.

She took the time to empty her luggage while Natsu got busy crawling around every available surface. He was very interested in the bed, rolling on the blankets and digging himself under the covers. The next time she looked up, she found him nosing through her desk and the papers there. She didn’t waste time jumping up to shoo him away. “No! Don’t touch those, I’ve-”

But Natsu wasn’t listening to her since he was already speeding towards the kitchen. Lucy grumbled under her breath and followed after him to make sure he didn’t destroy anything.

They were both disgruntled to find that Lucy did not, in fact, have anything to eat in her kitchen. As it turned out, she had forgotten that she had planned to do the shopping once she’d been paid for her latest job.

Lucy slammed her head against the fridge in frustration. Her two options were to go shopping with hungry and less-than-happy Natsu (because leaving him alone in her apartment seemed like a bad idea) or head to the guild and eat there.

It wasn’t difficult to decide that the guild would be the better option. None of her friends would sue her for the damage Natsu did, and her guildmates would have to meet the dragon sooner or later -might as well get that out of the way. And she did need to go inform Mira that her mission had been a success and she was back, safe and sound. So the Guildhall it was.

“All right then.” She plucked Natsu off the kitchen table where he was sulking and held him in front of her. “We are going to head for the guild where we can eat. BUT! No biting or clawing at anyone unless I tell you to, got it?”

He only wagged his tail in excitement over the promise of food.

Lucy let him clime to his usual spot around her neck before snatching up her bag and marching out the door. She had hoped to feed Natsu at home and then try to introduce him to some of her spirits -she still needed to see if Aries wanted to make a contract- before venturing into the crowds with him, but this couldn’t be helped. Though she would have felt far more comfortable knowing that she could safely call for her spirits to help if Natsu went on a rampage.

Luckily the streets were calm and Natsu was more focused on the prospect of food than he was on the passersby. Lucy tried to distract him further by telling him about her family at the guild. She was pleased to find that he seemed to be interested in what she had to say. He became very excited when Mira’s cooking skills were mentioned and grumpy when Gray’s stripping habit came up. All in all, she was curious to see how Natsu would settle in.

The dragon on her shoulder tensed when she walked through the massive double doors of the guildhall. There weren’t that many people around, but Natsu shifted nervously as Lucy replied to the few hellos that were yelled in her direction.

“It’s all right. They are all friends,” she cooed at him while trying to pry the claws off of her shoulder. She took a seat at the bar, grateful that the others were sitting around the tables and no one was nearby to harass Natsu just yet. That is, until Mirajane popped up from behind the bar, startling the poor dragon badly enough that he nearly fell from his spot.

“Lucy! You’re back! And you brought a friend.” Mira’s eyes zeroed in on Natsu, and she giggled when he hissed at the barmaid. “Can’t say that we’ve had dragons inside the guild before.”

“No, Natsu,” Lucy reprimanded him sternly when he made a swipe towards the other woman. “This is Mirajane. The one I told you about, remember? The one who won’t feed us if you bite her.”

Natsu looked between Lucy and Mira a few times, before he dared to move himself on top of the bar. He approached the new person carefully, keeping his eyes nailed to her like he was expecting an attack. Mira lowered her hand slowly for him to sniff. After a long minute that had Lucy biting her lip nervously, Natsu sat back and gave what looked like a nod. The two women took that to mean that he was accepting Mira as not a thread.

“Oh my, aren’t you adorable.” Lucy could tell from her tone that the she-devil was finding it difficult not to cuddle the scaled creature. “How on Earth Land did you get yourself a dragon?”

“Ugh, not on purpose.” Lucy shook her head, still finding it hard to believe that she had an actual dragon. “It involved a sleazy, blackmailing shopkeeper -whose shop you should never visit, by the way- and my desperation to get Aries’ key.”

“Oh, you finally found the key! Loki must be pleased. And I’m sure Aries is happy to have a home with you too.” Mira clapped her hands together in a joyful manner and smiled widely. She knew just how long Lucy had been looking for that one key.

Lucy shrugged and glanced at Natsu, who was following the conversation with narrowed eyes. “I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to either of them yet, but I’m planning on it once we’ve had something to eat.” She smiled hopefully.

“Say no more. I assume you want your usual? And...uh...what do dragons eat?”

Lucy decided on a large steak for Natsu, though she had to assure Mira that the dragon could definitely handle the big meal despite his size. And he seemed eager to prove her right with the way he inhaled the meat as soon as it was placed in front of him. Lucy ate her burger and fries with more manners while chatting with Mira about the details of her last mission. 

“Has Happy returned yet?” Lucy asked after finishing her milkshake. Natsu had seemed to fall into a food coma next to his plate.

Mira shook her head. “Not yet. I got a word from Wendy right after you left for your job; they got sidetracked at the beginning of the mission and are just now getting started with their monster hunt.”

Lucy frowned a little at the information. As annoying as the talking cat could be, she was really missing the little guy. They’d been friends and roommates for the past three years that Lucy had been in the guild, and the cat’s presence in her life was something she had gotten used to. Recently though, Happy had started tacking along on their newest member’s quests -Lucy assumed that it had to do with the female cat that was always glued to Wendy’s side. Not that Lucy could blame the cat for his interest -heavens knew that Lucy would have ditched Happy in a heartbeat for the chance to go on adventures with a hot dude.

And maybe it was better that Happy wasn’t around just yet, since it gave Natsu the time to grow used to his new environment without the added stress factor of having to share his home and Lucy’s attention right away. 

Or he would grow used to it being just the two of them and the addition of Happy would bring a disaster.

“Do you happen to know where Levy is? I could use some help researching dragons.”

“Oh yes. She had a fight with Gajeel this morning and she stormed out. Said she had a headache and wouldn’t be back until tomorrow.” Lucy wondered what Gajeel had done that was bad enough to drive Levy out of the guild library for a full day.

The Celestial mage slumped in her seat a little. She didn’t wan’t to bother Levy with this if she was still pissed over the dragon slayer. Of course she could do the research on her own, but Levy would speed up the process considerably. And Lucy worried that Natsu would grow bored if all her focus was solely on the research, and that he would end up destroying the books. Levy would -understandably- murder them if that happened. 

“When she shows up, could you tell her about Natsu and that I need help researching dragons?”

At Mira’s agreement, Lucy said her goodbyes, scooped up the still passed out dragon and headed for the door. While she usually liked to hang around the guild, it seemed best to give Natsu time to grow used to all this. Sticking to short, food filled visits at first so that he would associate the place with good things (those being food and attention from Lucy), before starting to introduce him to the other members of Fairy Tail.

She was just about to reach the doors when someone slammed themselves right into her back, knocking Natsu out of her arms and onto the floor. He was quick to pounce back to his feet, angry eyes and hisses directed at the person pressed to her back.

So much for nice and calm introductions.

“Lucy! You gotta help me! It’s Erza, she’s gonna ki-” Gray stopped his fear filled rambling as soon as he noticed the growling creature on the floor. “Shit! The fuck is that? Lucy get back!” He yanked her behind himself and got ready to use his maker magic.

Before Lucy had time to tell Gray to back down, or to calm Natsu, the dragon had already launched himself at the ice wizard. She had to scramble to get out the way, when Gray took instinctive steps back to avoid the attack. 

“No!” She watched in horror as Gray swung a bat made of ice, hitting Natsu with a sickening thud and sending the tiny dragon flying across the air. Natsu didn’t seem injured though, he flapped open his wings in order to stop his momentum. 

For a moment he hung in the air, eyes flicking between Lucy and Gray. She took a careful step forward, holding her hands out in a calming manner. “It’s okay, Natsu. Gray didn’t mean to-”.

She didn’t get to the end of the sentence before Gray reached his arm out to stop her from going too close. After that, it was no surprise to Lucy that Natsu dove towards Gray again. He threw up his arms, making an icy shield to hide behind. Natsu managed to stop just before hitting the obstacle while also starting to breath fire towards the shield.

Lucy stared in alarm, uncertain on what she should do. It was doubtful that either of them would listen to her now, and stepping between them seemed like a good way to get hurt. Before she could waste any more time, a new voice broke in.

“Gray! What do you think you’re doing?” Lucy’s eyes snapped towards Erza, who was looming behind them, looking as intimidating as ever -even with strawberry cake smeared across her shirt. Both Gray and Natsu stopped what they were doing, their attention drawn towards Erza. “If you think that just because you’re fighting a dragon, I’m going to forget about you knocking over my cake, you are mistaken.”

Oh, poor Gray.

“N-now, hold on...” The ice-make wizard had gone pale and was now trying to inch his way towards the doors, remnants of the shield melting on the ground and Natsu completely forgotten. “I-I didn’t mean to do that, it was an accident.”

Erza grabbed Gray by the labels before he could make a run for it, and hauled him up. “You didn’t even apologize!” She shook her head in disappointment. “Honestly, I thought you were raised better. But it seems I need to teach you some more manners.” 

Lucy watched with mild worry for her friend, as Erza dragged the petrified Gray away. The guildhall had gone completely silent, all the occupants having been caught up in the entertainment of the past few minute. 

Natsu was still hovering in the air looking baffled, when Lucy snatched him back into her arms. “Well, we’re going now!” she shouted over her shoulder as she rushed outside. Natsu had started to struggle in her arms, intending to go back and finish the fight. 

“No, Natsu. Gray is a friend. What happened was an accident and you two shouldn’t fight.” Lucy tried her best to get him to settle, but the dragon tried to wriggle his way to freedom until they were back in the safety of her apartment where he just sulked and glared at her. He huffed at her words and flew away from her.

“Do not give me that look. I’m not letting you hurt my friends.” Lucy collapsed onto her couch and motioned the dragon to fly closer. “Or them you. Come here, I need to see that you aren’t injured.”

Not that she would know what to do with an injured dragon. Stars, Porlyusica would scowl her all the way to hell, if she brought a dragon in for treatment.

Truly, there had better be some kind of ‘how to’ -guide for taking care of a dragon.

Natsu took his time before deciding to land in her lap in order to let her inspect him. She was very gentle about touching along his sides and pushing carefully against his stomach, worried that the hit Gray had give had caused some serious damage. She was relieved to find that Natsu didn’t seem bothered by her poking, meaning that there was probably no broken ribs or internal bleeding.

“Oh, thank the Stars. We don’t need to risk our lives visiting Porlyusica,” Lucy breathed out and started to run her fingertips lightly over the laid-down spikes along his spine. Natsu seemed to enjoy the petting, judging by the way he was stretching his back into her touch. If he was a cat, Lucy was sure he would be purring.

Eventually, he tipped over to lay on his back like a dog wanting to get it’s belly scratched. Lucy laughed a little before doing just that. Underneath his chin seemed to be the sweet-spot for scratching.

Marveling over how warm he was, she smoothed over the scales, taking note of the fact that the scales were far softer on his stomach than they were on the other parts of his body. 

She also found that he had a single white scale just under his jaw, which stood out against the deep red that otherwise covered him. How odd. 

When she tried to stop the stroking, he wrapped his tail around her wrist to drag her hand back. He was far too adorable and she couldn’t make herself stop the petting just yet.

Soon enough, Natsu was relaxed and snoring, the stress from earlier forgotten. Once she was sure he was sleeping deeply enough, Lucy risked summoning Virgo as quietly as she could.

“Good eve-” Lucy cut off the spirits greeting with a frantic shushing and pointing towards the sleeping dragon. She didn’t even want to think how he would react waking up to stranger in the room.

Though Virgo, the masochist that she was, would probably thank Natsu for the mauling.

“Hi, I’m sorry. I kind of need your help right now, but please try not to wake Natsu.” Lucy looked at the spirit pleadingly.

“Of course, Princess. What would you need me to do?” Virgo whispered back, already looking eager to receive a task.

“Could you go grocery shopping for me, please?” Lucy cringed a little. She felt awful about asking things like this from her spirits, but taking Natsu to the market might be too much after what happened earlier. “I would do it myself, but Natsu has already started one fight today.”

“I would be happy to.” Virgo’s eyes were shining with happiness, which eased Lucy’s guilt a little. “Would you also need assistance with the dragon?”

“No, thank you. Natsu is a new addition to our family -he just needs some time to adjust before meeting you all.” She scratched his chin with a little more pressure, smiling at the way one of his back legs (paws?) kicked in response.

“Alright. Do you want me to inform the other spirits of his presence?”

“If you don’t mind. He might be a little protective of me, but I would like him to meet you all. He’s going to tack along to my missions and it would be good if he had no problems with you guys popping in.” Lucy looked up quickly, remembering what had started all this. “Could you also pass along my apologies to Aries for the delay with summoning her? I have been dying to meet her and talk about maybe making a contract, but I got Natsu at the same time I got her key, so things have been kinda hectic.”

Virgo smiled softly and nodded. “I’ll be sure to tell her. We are all very excited about you finding her key. Loki has already made a list of ways he can show you his gratitude.”

Lucy was still mulling over the threat that was Loki’s gratitude, while Virgo collected Lucy’s wallet and left the apartment.

Natsu was a little like a cat, in the sense that once he decided to fall asleep on her lap, she couldn’t find in in her heart to move him. So instead, she spend a good hour sitting on her couch petting him. Virgo had returned, filled her kitchen and left for the spirit realm long before the dragon finally decided to get up.

The rest of the day was spent cooking for tomorrow (Natsu seemed puzzled by the suddenly full fridge) and cleaning the apartment, with Natsu sticking close by the whole time.

When the sun started to go down, Lucy gave Natsu a rundown of tomorrows plan. He was not happy at the prospect of having to meet Lucy’s spirits. Which meant that Lucy felt the need to give him a good long lecture on how biting your friends was **a bad thing that we don’t do** , before letting him crawl into bed with her. He, of course, spend a considerable amount of time traveling under the covers and refusing to settle down. Lucy suspected that it was a revenge for the lecture. She was already pretty annoyed by the time he finally decided to curl himself into the crook of her shoulder. 

As if sensing her less-than-good mood, he poked her cheek with his snout a few times, instantly melting her.

“Alright, alright,” laughing a little, she gently nudged his head away from her cheek. “Just go to sleep already.”

After one more nuzzle to her chin, he laid down, his head resting over her neck. Lucy couldn’t help but feel a little happy as she fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! 
> 
> I wanted to say a big thank you for all the reviews and love this story has gotten already! I'm completely blown away by the support.
> 
> If you have ideas or things you want to see in this story, please tell me and I'll see if I can add them! While I have the plot and some events planned, I want this fic to be a fluff -fest, so any adorable/sweet/cute/funny ideas are welcome;)
> 
> I'm going to do my best to get these chapters up at least once a month, but I want to take my time with this and write chapters that are 4000+ words, which means the editing is going to take me forever to get through. I hope you guys won't mind if the time between chapters is slightly longer sometimes, but I'll do my best to make sure it's always worth the wait!


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy felt her hand shaking as she held the key in her grip, ready to summon Virgo. Before leaving yesterday, the spirit had assured her mage that she wouldn’t mind being the first to test out meeting Natsu. Still, Lucy was beyond nervous about how this would go.

She had fed Natsu a big breakfast and spend a good while petting him while blabbering about how amazing her spirits were, hoping that that would get him in a good enough mood to not pick any fights.

Lucy had wanted to summon Loki first, but on second thought, so far Natsu hadn’t reacted well to any man that got too close, so it might be best to start with a female spirit.

Quick glance told her that Natsu was still sitting by her feet. She knew he was getting bored with waiting on her to call a spirit, but damn she was nervous. What if Natsu didn’t get along with her spirits? No way was Lucy even capable of imagining giving up her keys for the dragons comfort. The spirits were her family, the magic learned from her mother.

But giving up Natsu didn’t seem right either. She hadn’t had him for longer than a few days, but he seemed already attached to her and handing him over to someone else just didn’t sit right with her. And given his size, setting him free into the nature seemed like a death sentence. Poor thing was far too tiny to look after himself.

Leaving him behind any time she left for a job would be the only option left. She was sure he wouldn’t be happy about it, and her apartment would pay the price for that.

“Remember to behave. It’s very important to me that you get along with my spirits,” she reminded Natsu for the thousandth time that morning. He looked up at her and Lucy swore he rolled his eyes.

Swallowing down her nerves, Lucy focused on her key. She had been very anxious about taking them out in front of Natsu. She knew that dragons were drawn to anything that was shiny, and her keys fit that description. It would be a nightmare if he decided to get possessive of her keys. Though so far, he hadn’t seemed too interested in them.

Once more, Lucy looked around to make sure there was nothing and no one that could get hurt if this went wrong. She had decided that an isolated spot on the beach was the best place for this -there was nothing that could catch on fire.

Before she could chicken out, the mage took a deep breath and summoned Virgo. 

As soon as the spirit appeared, Natsu was on his feet, the spikes along his back standing up, wings spread wide open and a low growl vibrating his body. He looked like an angry kitten, and Lucy felt bad for finding it to be amusing. The little darling was doing his best to be intimidating. Wasn’t his fault that he was far too small and adorable to strike fear into anyone’s heart.

“Good morning, Princess,” Virgo greeted her, completely ignoring the dragon.

“Hi. Thank you for doing this.” Lucy smiled at her, before kneeling on the ground and carefully setting her hand on Natsu’s back, hoping it would either calm him or stop an attack.

Virgo followed her example and sat down on the sand, avoiding making eye contact with the angry dragon in case he would take it as a challenge. “Of course, I’m always happy to help. Just tell me what you would like me to do.”

Lucy nodded at her friend in acknowledgment, before focusing on Natsu again. “Natsu, I told you that the my spirits are friends and not threats, so don’t be mean to them.” She rubbed her fingers gently against his side, trying to get him to shift his attention to her. 

After a minute of Virgo sitting in silence and not moving an inch, he seemed to relax enough to stop growling. When he glanced at her from the corner of his eye, Lucy gave him a soft smile. “This is Virgo. I know her entrance might have startled you, but that’s just how it is with Celestial Spirits. I promise she isn’t going to hurt either of us. In fact, Virgo has saved me plenty of times during my missions.”

That last part was what seemed to get Natsu to relax some, his wings and spikes lowering a little. Lucy scratched his head as a reward, before gently nudging him towards Virgo, who was holding out her hand for the dragon.

Natsu was slow to approach. He watched the spirit with distrust as he drew closer, looking for any reason to get defensive. Lucy encouraged him softly and drowned him with praise when he sniffed and poked at Virgo’s palm. He didn’t stay near the spirit for long, clearly wary of the otherworldly presence. Once he had enough of the new person, he rushed back to Lucy. Climbing into her lap, he sat down but kept his sharp eyes on the stranger. Lucy spent some more time chatting with Virgo while also petting Natsu, thinking that it would be good for him to see her interacting with the spirits. Maybe that way he’d realize there was no danger. And it worked. After a while he was far more focused on rubbing himself against Lucy’s hand than he was on watching Virgo.

Once the gate was closed and they were alone again, she spend a good while complimenting and scratching the dragon. He was happy to bask in the attention.

“Okay, now, Natsu,” at her serious tone, he looked up at her with curiosity. “Next up I’m going to call on Aries. I haven’t met her before, but I would like to start working with her, so we can’t spook her.” She was pleased to see that he looked very focused and was obviously listening to her. “She’s had it rough with her past mage, and from what I’ve heard, she is very timid and shy.”

Lucy lifted Natsu up to her shoulder and he was quick to take his favorite place around her neck as she stood up. “It would mean the world to me if you would help me with her.”

She tried hiding her anxiousness about meeting a new spirit by focusing on brushing the sand from her hands and clothes. She was startled to feel a warm snout nuzzling against her cheek. When he had her attention, Natsu clicked at her, and Lucy was sure that he had picked up on her panic and was trying to calm her. Moved by the gesture, the celestial mage gave him a quick scratch as a thanks before grabbing the key of the Ram.

After the golden glow of the gate had faded, in front of her was standing her new spirit. Aries was shifting on her feet nervously and biting her nails, doing her best to avoid eye contact. Lucy wasn’t surprised by the shyness, Loki had warned her, but her heart still broke knowing why the spirit was so wary of a new mage.

“Hi! I’m Lucy and you must be Aries,” she kept her tone as light and breezy as she could, wanting to appear friendly. “You have no idea how excited I am to meet you, Loki has told me so much about you.”

Aries stilled and glanced at her quickly before averting her eyes again. “I hope I’m not a disappointment.”

The spirit sounded so scared and ready to cry, that Lucy truly wished that Aries’ former mage was still around so that she could deal out some punishment for terrorizing this spirit so badly. She couldn’t stand the thought of a celestial mage abusing their spirits. No one should be forced to live under shuts conditions.

“Oh not at all, you seem great!” Lucy hoped she wasn’t coming on too strong, but the light blush on the spirit’s cheeks seemed like a good sign. “Actually, I was hoping to make a contract with you. No pressure though, if you don’t want to, I totally understand. I can either keep your key safe or pass it on to another wizard if you’d prefer.”

To be honest, the thought of handing out the key after spending so much time and effort -and acquiring a damn dragon- to get it was not a pleasant one, but no way was she going to keep the spirit hostage if she didn’t agree to a contract. That would go against everything Lucy believed a good celestial mage to be.

Aries’ head shot up, panic in her eyes as she shook her head feverishly. “N-no, please don’t give my key away. I’ll make a contract with you!”

Lucy frowned at the frightened voice. “I’m not giving the key away if you don’t want me to.” She tried reassuring. “But I’m not making a contract either unless it’s what you want. My spirits work with me only if they want to.”

Blinking away tears, Aries shuffled in her spot but didn’t respond.

“If you want to take more time to consider it, I’m okay with it. You can have all the time you want to decide and come up with conditions for a contract, I won’t pressure you for one now.”

After a long moment of silence, in which even Natsu seemed to hold still, Aries looked up at her with determination.

“I want to make a contract with you.”

Feeling her heart skip with happiness, Lucy forced herself to take a breath and ask again if the spirit was sure.

Aries nodded, pink curls pouncing. “Yes. The others have only said nice things about you, and I know you helped Loki. I...I want you to be my mage.”

Lucy couldn’t hide her smile. “Okay then, let’s make a contract!”

She was very meticulous with establishing the things and conditions with which Aries was comfortable working with. Luckily Natsu seemed to be able to hold himself from acting out while she was distracted. Growing bored of hanging from her neck after the first ten minutes, he spend his time climbing along her body, probably making some horrible holes in her clothes, and rolling around in the sand. Though he never wandered far from her and he kept giving Aries suspicious glances.

Only once the contract was completed and Aries seemed happy, did Lucy call Natsu over for an introduction. The little dragon rushed over with a puff of sand and clicked with excitement when the mage scooped him into her hands and held him towards Aries. The spirit was a little hesitant, her hand trembling when she held it out for Natsu.

Lucy was very relieved when all he did was sniff a little before nudging the fingers with his snout. It only took a few careful pets on his head for the ram spirit to melt and start cooing over how adorable Natsu was.

“Isn’t he?” Lucy couldn’t hide the silly grin that took over her face when she thought about the dragons antics. At her words, his head snapped towards her. By the spark in his eyes, Lucy assumed that he was pleased to hear her praise. 

The dragon seemed to have had enough of the petting after that, because he scampered his way back to her shoulder where he spend a good while rubbing against Lucy’s cheek while she was saying her goodbyes to Aries.

Once the gate was closed, she couldn’t contain her delighted scream as she grabbed the startled dragon into a tight hug.

“She agreed to work with me! And you did so well!” She couldn’t resist pressing a sound kiss on his small head. “I’m so proud of you.”

Natsu didn’t seem to mind the somewhat rough show of affection judging by the way he pressed into her face and clicked cheerfully. Lucy took a moment to enjoy the feeling of success before getting serious again. She needed to prepare Natsu for meeting Loki, after all.

It was crucial that the two of them got along. Loki was the one she called on most often, and since the spirit could come through the gate on his own, there were bound to be some surprise visits.

“Okay, Natsu, the next spirit is going to be a little more difficult for you, but I’m sure you can handle it.” She lifted the dragon to be at eye level with her. He tilted his head with curiosity. “Loki is a dear friend and the leader of the zodiacs, so as far as my spirits go, he is the strongest. But just to warn you...he is quite...flirty.”

At that, Natsu narrowed his eyes and growled, and Lucy continued to be surprised at how intelligent he was. To understand words as well as he did, seemed unbelievable. And yet, here he was, glaring at her keys and hissing at them, as if to warn away the offending spirit. How on Earthland did he comprehend so well what she was saying?

Sure Happy could hold a conversation perfectly well, but he wasn’t a regular cat. And as far as Lucy knew, dragons weren’t supposed to be this smart. She couldn’t wait to get to the research part in order to figure this out.

Lucy forced herself out of her own thoughts so that she could poke Natsu’s snout to gain his attention.

“None of that,” she said firmly once his dark eyes were on here. “Loki is not your enemy and I will not have the two of you fighting.”

Once the worst of the growling had calmed, Lucy wrapped the dragon into an one armed hug, grabbed the lion key and summoned its spirit before she could talk herself out of it. 

She already knew that this meeting wouldn’t go as smoothly as the previous ones, but there really was no avoiding it. She knew she’d have to go on another job soon since paying for Aries’ key had taken a massive chunk out of her savings, and going on a job meant using her spirits. And using her spirits meant that half the time she was summoning Loki since he was the best at adapting to a variety of situations and the least likely to ditch her in the middle of a battle.

At first it seemed like this might actually work. Natsu was tense and his claws were digging into her arm, but he wasn’t trying to wriggle to freedom or spitting fire. Even Loki seemed to behave himself, greeting her politely and keeping his distance.

But the whole thing went to hell when Lucy adjusted her hold on Natsu so that he was pressed more firmly against her. At that point, Loki couldn’t resist making a comment about wanting to switch places with the dragon. Truly, she should have seen that one coming.

After hearing that, Natsu wasted no time freeing himself from her hold and flying towards the lion spirit with astounding speed.

Luckily the spirit knew better than to start fighting back. He dodged the dragon’s claws with skill, while Lucy tried her best to talk Natsu into calming down. I didn’t work though, and eventually she saw it best to just close the gate and try again later.

To say she was disappointed would be an understatement. With the way the first two encounters with the spirits had gone, she had really started to hope that this too, would go well. But now, as she looked on while Natsu flew in circles and spat fire, searching for the enemy that had disappeared into thin air, she realized how dumb that hope had been.

No matter how intelligent he seemed, Natsu was still just a dragon with a dragon’s instincts and behavior. There might never be a day that he got along with all of her spirits. At least not while he saw those spirits as a threat to himself and the things he considered as his, and she knew Loki and Taurus would be especially challenging.

It took a good while before Natsu was calm enough that she dared to take him back to the guild, where she hoped to meet with Levy. If anyone could help her figure out how to deal with owning a dragon, it would most definitely be the solid script mage. No one had better problem solving skills than Levy.

Lucy was very nervous while walking through the guildhall. This time around there were lots of people around and it was putting Natsu on edge. She was gripping him so tightly in her arms, that it was a small miracle he didn’t pass out from the lack of oxygen.

She had nearly made it to the library doors when she heard her name being called by a familiar voice, instantly making dread gather to the pit of her stomach.

“Uh... Now’s not the best time, Gray,” she warned over her shoulder, not wanting to turn in case actually seeing the ice mage would make this worse for Natsu. As it were, he was already struggling for freedom after hearing Gray’s voice, clearly wanting to pick up the the battle from where it was left off.

“Yeah, just wanted to make sure you’re okay. Mira filled us in on the whole situation and I kinda got worried. From what I’ve heard, owning a dragon can get really dangerous.”

Lucy glanced at him with narrowed eyes. “I’m fine. Though Natsu could’ve been seriously hurt from the way you smacked him.”

At least he had the decency to look ashamed. “Sorry about that. I just kinda freaked and reacted after seeing that thing hissing and aiming for my face.”

Lucy regarded him for a moment before nodding in acceptance of his apology. She wasn’t one to hold grudges and she understood reacting before thinking when under an attack. Still, she didn’t think Natsu was going to let this one go just yet. 

“I forgive you, but it’s going to take a while before Natsu is friendly with you.” That was putting it too lightly. The little dragon was frantically trying to get away from Lucy’s hold in order to exact his revenge. She could feel his body starting to heat up in preparation to spitting fire. Little bastard was going to burn down the guild if this kept up.

“Not like I want hang out with your lizard either,” Gray scoffed.

“That’s too bad, since he’ll be around from now on.” Lucy was determined to keep the dragon. Her heart couldn’t take the idea of throwing him out on the steer to fend for himself. No matter how much trouble he would cause, Lucy would figure this out. 

And for that, she needed Levy and her books ASAP.

Gray opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of Juvia calling for him across the hall had the wizard scrambling for a place to hide, leaving Lucy the chance to slip into the library before anyone else could delay her.

She made sure that the library doors were firmly closed so that Natsu couldn’t slip out to cause havoc, before making her way between the shelves until she found her best friend sitting at their favorite table.

“Lucy!” As soon as Levy saw her, she jumped up to give her friend the normal greeting hug, only to flinch back when she noticed the small creature, still in Lucy’s arm, glaring up at her. “Wow, I half expected that Mira was joking when she said you got yourself a dragon, but I see it really is true.”

“To be honest, I’m still half hoping that this isn’t real.” Lucy shook her head with a soft smile to her friend before instructing Levy to hold out her hand for Natsu to sniff.

He seemed to be very suspicious of the new person. Taking his sweet time with the smelling process and squinting up at the blue haired mage. When he was done with that, he just huffed out a puff of smoke, wrinkled his nose and turned his face away from her.

Levy pouted a little at the obvious rejection. “He doesn’t like me. And I really wanted to pet a dragon too!”

Lucy gave a sympathetic smile, hoping to cheer her up. “Maybe he’ll come around with time. He doesn’t dislike you nearly as much as Gray.”

That seemed to appease the short woman enough to get her back on track. Levy indicated for Lucy to take a seat at the table that was piled high with books, all seeming to be about dragons. Natsu seemed very interested about crawling over the piles once he was given the freedom to do so, making both women worry about the damage his claws could cause.

“So, have you found anything that might help?” Lucy asked while keeping watch on the dragon from the corner of her eye.

Levy beamed and nodded with excitement. “Oh yeah! There’s plenty in these books. I don’t know why I haven’t thought to researched dragons before, they are so fascinating.”

“Don’t let Gajeel hear you say that, he might get jealous,” Lucy chuckled and watched as blush started to crawl on the other woman’s face. She didn’t understand why those two didn’t just get together already. It was obvious that they were head over heels for each other but refused to acknowledge their feelings. It was truly frustrating to watch. “And speaking of, what did he do to piss you off yesterday?”

Instantly, Lucy could see her friend’s temper rising. The embarrassed blush from earlier turning to one of anger. “Ugh, can you believe that jerk? He said I shouldn’t go on missions with Jet and Troy because I’ll get myself killed! It’s like he thinks that I can’t take care of myself!”

“Did you consider that maybe he doesn’t wan’t you going on missions with those two because he wants you to go with him?” Lucy had to bite down on her lip to stop herself from smiling. “Maybe he wants the chance to play the hero for you on jobs.”

After watching Levy sputter for an answer for a minute, Lucy let her out of her misery and asked what she had found so far. Levy seemed very grateful at the chance to avoid talking about the dragon slayer.

“Okay, so, from the color and his body shape alone, it’s clear that he’s a fire dragon. So you might want to check your fire alarm and get some more fire extinguishers. Maybe keep aquarius’ key close, I’m sure she’d be happy to help you but out the inevitable fires.” Lucy was not too pleased about Levy’s amusement at the notion. “Mira also said that you were worried about how small Natsu is despite being supposedly an adult.” At Lucy’s nod, she went on. “And while he is the size of a baby dragon, looking at him now, he has all the signs of having reached maturity.”

Lucy frowned at that. “How is that possible? He’s so small that I find it hard to believe he’s already an adult.”

“And I completely understand the confusion. It’s highly unusual for a dragon not to grow past this point. But if you look at the spikes along his back, the length of his claws, as well as how deep red his scales are, it’s obvious that he’s done growing. Dragons that are still considered fledglings, haven’t developed the spine barbs, their claws are short and soft, and the color of the scales is closer to pastel. Believe it or not, Natsu is an adult.”

“Then why is he so tiny? Don’t tell me he’s sick!” The celestial mage felt the worry starting to gnaw at her. Natsu seemed to pick up on the distress in her voice, since he immediately clambered over to her. He stood up on his hind legs and leaned his front paws on her chest so that he could inspect her face, before turning accusing eyes towards Levy who he assumed had caused her upset. Lucy set her hand on his back, hoping to stop an incident before it happened.

“If you haven’t noticed him showing any symptoms of sickness, I don’t think so.” The blue haired mage pulled a book closer to herself, as if to use it as a barrier against the dragon. “A dragon’s growth is wholly depended on the environment. They grow as long as they have space to fly and stretch their wings, as well as practice hunting and eat their fill. They also need to feel safe and secure, meaning staying with a fully grown dragon that protects them while they are still developing.”

Lucy looked down at the small dragon, feeling her heart ache. “So what you’re saying is that Natsu was probably separated from his parents when he was young, kept in a too small space, starved and living in fear.”

She would not cry at the thought. She would not.

But when Levy gave a sad nod, Lucy felt the tears gathering in her eyes and she couldn’t resist crushing the dragon with a fierce hug.

After Lucy took a minute to cuddle Natsu and gather herself, Levy tried telling her more about dragons and their behavior, but she found it difficult to focus. Her thoughts were too busy running around what could be a very dark past of her new companion. So what if he tried to murder Gray? The poor thing had probably been stolen from his mother while he was still a baby.

Was the one who stole Natsu the same wizard who had sold him to that shopkeeper? And did that person go around stealing baby dragons to sell? If so, Lucy would be all too happy to track down that bastard and show them just how angry that kind of business made her.

“Hey, Lu,” Lucy glanced up when she heard Levy’s voice, mortified to notice that she had spent a good while in her own thoughts. Levy had been nice enough to waste her morning helping her and she didn’t even have the decency to listen. 

“I’m so sorry! What were you saying?”

“Just that you don’t seem focused enough to do this now, and since I’m pretty sure that Natsu is about to chew that book, it’s totally fine if you want to go home for the day.” 

The blonde glanced over to where the dragon had wandered off to while she was lost in thought, and was horrified to realize that yes, Natsu was sniffing and licking a leather bound book in a manner that told her he was getting ready to sink his teeth into it. With a startling speed, the celestial mage grabbed him back into her arms and smiled apologetically at her friend. “I’m sorry. You’ve gone to all this trouble to help and I’m not even paying attention. But I’m fine and listening now, as well as keeping a better track of Natsu.”

Levy shook her head and smiled kindly. “No it’s fine, Lucy. I know you well enough to know that you are going to worry about what happened to Natsu for a good while. So how about you take some of the notes I made and few of the books I found very helpful, go home, cuddle and spoil your dragon in order to feel better, and I’ll drop by your place in a few days so we can go over everything.”

Lucy agreed to Levy’s suggestion far too easily. She hated to admit that she was relieved at the chance to ditch her friend, but Levy did know her too well; all she wanted to do was fuss over Natsu in hopes of filling some hole that was probably left by whatever trauma he had experienced. 

Without thinking, she let go of Natsu and went around the table so that she could give her friend a hug, but as soon as Levy’s arms went around her, an angry dragon screech could be heard. The women jumped away from the sound and looked over to where the culprit was crouching like he was getting ready to pounce, wings opened wide and spikes standing up from his back. The faintest glow of fire could be seen coming from his open mouth.

Levy was far quicker to catch on to what was happening, instantly stepping away from Lucy and dropping her arm from where it was still around her friends shoulder.

“It’s okay, see?” Levy held up her hands and took a few more steps back. “I’m not hurting her or trying to steal her away.”

Lucy looked between the two, uncertain on what she should do. She was upset at the idea that Natsu wouldn’t let her near her friends and wanted to tell him off for it, but at the same time she wanted to reassure him that everything was fine. 

Though it wasn’t. 

Lucy was a very affectionate person and, after the way her childhood had gone, the idea of never again being able to hug or be close to her friends chilled her to her bones.

“Lucy, I think you should take him home now and see if that would get him to calm down.” 

Nodding at Levy’s words, Lucy stepped closer to the table where Natsu was still situated. Holding out her hand, she let him climb on to her shoulder where he remained tense and watching the other woman.

Lucy was feeling truly anxious as she picked up Levy’s notebook and the two books that the script mage suggested. They were both very aware of the way Natsu’s eyes remained glued to Levy as they said their goodbyes from a distance, before Lucy slipped out of the library.

Thinking it best not to risk a trip through the guildhall, she used the backdoor exit that led to the alleyway where the guild’s trash was taken. It wasn’t the most pleasant way to leave the guild, but it was far better than another brawl started by her dragon.

Lucy tried do convince herself that the tears stinging her eyes were the result of the stinking garbage around her, and not from the fear and sudden sense of loneliness she was feeling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for those of you who wanted to see more Loki and Natsu interaction, but the scene kinda dragged on for too long and Loki felt ooc, so I felt a short summary worked better. But not to worry, those two will definitely meet again, and next time Natsu may or may not be in a state that allows for a better... communication.
> 
> Also a heads up for the next chapter: I will be moving halfway across my country during this month as well as starting in a new school in august, so I don't know when I'll have the time and focus to write. At the earliest, the next chapter will be up at the end of august, but I'm not making any promises.
> 
> Though I am very excited about the next few chapters, so I might do the responsible adult thing and spend a few nights writing instead of sleeping...


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